Comptroller-General of Immigration Kwame Asuah Takyi
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) have explained why a traveller was stopped from travelling recently.
The explanation followed a social media video when the said traveller was stopped from travelling to France at the Kotoka International Airport because his details matched those of a person on the ‘stop list’ of the security agency.
A statement from the GIS explains that the said person has been on the ‘stop list’ since 2013 on the request of the Ghana Police Service, Airport District.
On Saturday, September 9, 2023, he and his family, the statement continued, “were travelling to France. They were stopped and subsequently released to the Ghana Police Service for necessary actions.”
On Monday, September 11, 2023, “the lawyers of the traveller wrote to the Ghana Immigration Service for an explanation of the reason why the traveller was stopped from travelling,” the statement disclosed.
The GIS responded accordingly, and made arrangements with the concerned Airline to allow the traveller and his family to travel.
Explaining further, the GIS stated that as an institution which deals with security issues, it must analyse “names of passengers that come up for analysis if they are similar to those of security interest. Interactions are therefore made with such persons with no intended malice.”
The general public has been assured that “the Ghana Immigration Service will continue to manage migration in the interest of national security and the socio-economic development of the country.”
By A.R. Gomda